Do Recruiters Read Resumes Anymore?
Imagine crafting a resume so outlandish that it showcases the pitfalls of the modern-day recruitment process in 2024. Enter Jerry Lee, who under the guise of "Kismma D. Nhuhts" (so unserious), submitted his fake resume to various high-profile companies boasting fake, yet hilarious qualifications.
On his resume, Jerry boasted Kismma worked as a Product Manager at Instagram, Google, and Amazon. At Google, he claimed he used their computing resources to mine $15 million worth of ‘Etherum” (a typo by the way for Ethereum). Previous to Google he claimed to have worked at Amazon as a Product Manager on the Amazon Dating Team. Although this concept doesn’t seem far-fetched for Amazon, I can see it now, let's use shared consumer habits and purchases to match prospective couples. Picture the algorithm suggesting you date someone because "you both bought the same off-brand protein shake and electronic toothbrush in March; you are only 18 miles apart and we think you would make a great match”— would you like to ‘add your match to the cart?’
But the deception does not end there, Jerry (Kismma) academic credentials were equally hysterically flagrant, he claimed he studied at Stanford University and earned his degree in BS, Computer Science, Sugondese Studies (say the quiet part out loud) with a perfect GPA of 4.0. For his "skills" section, he did not disappoint on creativity, listing such skills as JavaScript, Python, Arson, and Mia Khalifa?!? We must get back to reading beyond the headlines and bold print again.
Jerry’s resume social experiment was inspired by an Angelina Lee, who previously conducted a similar comical experiment two years ago—fabricating qualifications and landing a 90% interview callback rate from some well-known companies. Angelina took it a bit further on her experiment by responding to interview invites with links to recruiters that "rick roll" (I'm not explaining this, chatGPT it) to notify them this was all in fun but surprisingly no recruiter clicked the link.
Back to Jerry, after six weeks and 100 applications later, Jerry/Kismma landed a 29% interview callback rate from well-known companies too. TWENTY NINE PERCENT! Let's say we blame this on the ATS software AI/algorithm tools for selecting Jerry/Kismma's resume and suggesting he be interviewed. It is still wild and we have more work to do. It's a wilder concept that actual humans read his resume and pushed him forward for an interview.This brings us to a vital question—do recruiters even read resumes, or are we just scanning for keywords and hitting 'approve' for an interview?
In an era where recruiters are tasked with finding candidates as quick as Amazon prime delivers, Jerry's experiment proves a point: we all need to have an attention to detail. It's time for recruiters to take a moment longer than six seconds to assess a candidate's credentials.
To see the well crafted wacky resume and the companies that invited Jerry/Kismma to interview, see below.
At Seven Park recruitment, we pride ourselves on actually reading resumes—every word, every line (yes, including sometimes those typos). Our superpower is finding unicorn talent that is right for your business and helping unicorn land their dream job. Let’s match.
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